Q: When you're on a long green-flag run and not racing around anyone, what do you think about?

A: I don't really get that distracted. It's more about hitting my marks and being consistent. I use that word all the time: Consistent. Then I'm thinking about what the car is doing and I'm trying to relay that.

Most of the time, I talk too much in the race car – so I just try to shut up and drive and think about my line every corner. Maybe every 10 laps I'll talk to my crew chief.

So where some drivers are always asking their team to be quiet, your team asks you to be quiet?

They used to move my (talk) button on me and taught me a lesson not to key up so much. (Laughs) But sometimes Chad (Norris, crew chief) will be reading me lap times and I'll say, "Alright, no lap times for a little while. Let me run this guy down." And then nobody will talk for 10 or 15 laps. Then there are times when you need information and stuff like that.

Q: This is going to seem like an extremely obvious question for you, but fans often come up to you and want to discuss a moment or race from your career. Which one comes up the most?

A: You can answer this one for me. (Laughs) Yeah, it's the Daytona 500 (in 2011). It's always that one. Obviously, now they want to talk about the full-time Cup deal for next year, driving the No. 6. But for one race, it's always the Daytona 500. The answer for that question will probably never change.

Q: If someone paid you $5 million to design a new racetrack and gave you an unlimited budget, what kind of track would you build?

A: I love short-track racing – I think it makes for good passing, good racing and good action. So I'd definitely build a short track, probably a half-mile track.

But if I had an unlimited budget, I'd try to find a pavement that started out as aged pavement with tire wear and tire fall-off. You'd have strategy where you had to conserve your tires. I grew up racing with one set of tires for 150 or 200 laps like the K&N East Series or Pro Cup, so there was a lot of strategy behind the wheel of not going all-out at the beginning but saving your tires for the end.

I always enjoyed that kind of racing. Maybe if you could come up with a pavement that wasn't so much one-lane racing and created some tire fall-off, that'd be cool.

Q: If you had a day off to do anything in the world you wanted — but you were not allowed to race — what would you do?

A: For me, I'd probably just go back home to Knoxville (Tenn.) and hang out with my friends and family. When you get in this 16-races-in-a-row grind, you don't get to just go hang out with buddies that much. In a dream world, I'd probably load up a plane and take them all on vacation somewhere.

How many times a year do you get home?

I used to go a lot more, because I was dating (now-wife) Ashton and I'd try to get home to see her. But now it's probably once every two to three months maybe. Before the Bristol race I'll get to go home and hang out a little bit, so that's always nice.

Q: You get to have a lot of cool experiences away from racing through your job as a NASCAR driver. What's one that sticks out?

A: I feel like we get to do so much, but the one you couldn't buy and stands out the most is flying with the (Air Force) Thunderbirds. The F-16 flight, not everybody gets the opportunity to do that. We get to go to Red Sox games and sit in the front row and do all that kind of stuff – and that's really awesome – but I think the F-16 flight sticks out.

That was just the most mind-blowing thing I've ever done. Just to feel those g-forces and see what those pilots do, that was really cool.

(Photo: Mike Dinovo, USA TODAY Sports)

Q: When you go home after a bad day at the track, do you vent to someone about it or just keep it to yourself?

A: Normally, I have it all talked out before we get to the flight. Ashton and my business manager, Brent Weaver, ride with me from the track to the airport. Most of the time he'll drive because Ashton gets mad if I'm driving – I have a low tolerance for getting too close to people after a race.

So he'll drive and I'll sit there and break down the whole race. He'll back-and-forth with me a little bit and Ashton will jump in if I'm saying something stupid. Sometimes they make me more mad than I already am, but it's all good. Normally I have it all worked out by the time we get to the plane.

Then Chad and I sit beside one another on the plane and we'll talk about the race – normally I've had 30 minutes by then to think about it – and then in Monday meetings, we'll break it down again.

When I get home, it's hard for me to go to bed. We usually get home pretty late. And I'll lay in bed and think about it for another two or three hours. But normally, I've already talked through it and worked it out by then.

Q: If you have kids someday and they're running around the garage, who in NASCAR would you point to as a good example?

A: Man. By the time I have kids, it'll probably (be) all new drivers in the garage. (Laughs) So I don't know who it'll be then. But we all have our ups and downs.

There are things you could point out in several drivers – I have close friends like (Michael) McDowell and Blake (Koch), and their faith is something I'd want my kids to look up to. Then you have people who handle themselves well with fans like Carl Edwards and people who are clutch like Jimmie Johnson. So there's so many things you can take from different people.

I don't know that you ever want to take one person and model yourself after them. I grew up looking up to Jeff Gordon, so I'm sure there would be someone like that you'd point them toward.

Q: When you stand around with other drivers and tell old racing stories, what's one of your favorites to tell either about something that happened to yourself or someone else?

A: It's not so much something I tell other drivers because they're probably tired of it by now, but I always like to tell this story at my AdvoCare meetings.

In my first race, I was 5 years old and my dad had told me to do whatever I could to keep up. Ten laps into the race, the leader was halfway around the racetrack in front of me -- so I just cut through the middle of the infield trying to catch him. I bounced off the walls and did it the whole race. It didn't work out, but I thought it would.

That was very illegal, right?

Oh yeah, for sure. But I got a plaque for it: Best of Show. (Laughs)

Q: What's a TV show you're really into right now?

A: I'm more of an outside person – I don't really watch that much TV. But when I do, it's usually that Treehouse Masters show. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's where they build those crazy treehouses. That's a really cool show.

Q: What's the last movie you saw – either at home or in the theater -- and was it any good?

A: We watched Bounty Hunter a few weeks ago at home. It had Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston in it. It was pretty funny. It might be close to being in the chick flick category, but it was pretty funny.

Q: If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self — something you know now that you didn't know then — what would it be?

A: I'm still working on this now, but when I was younger, I always used to want to make excuses or try to explain myself. Sometimes I felt like I didn't do anything wrong and wanted to explain it; other times, I knew I messed up and I still wanted to explain it.

I learned that was being prideful. Last year at Darlington, when I messed up and crashed with a lapped car, I wanted to say, "What was that lapped car doing in the way?" Then I realized I should have been patient. And some of my close friends called me out on it and really held me accountable for it.

I realized even if you don't feel like you messed up, if you take ownership of what you did wrong and understand you make mistakes, you can learn from that a lot quicker and people appreciate it more.

Let's say I crash this weekend and I go to the race shop and I try to blame it on somebody else. Well, they might side with me a little bit – but if I came in and said, "Man, I really shouldn't have put myself in that situation," they're going to appreciate that a lot more and respect you for it.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Brad Keselowski and he wanted to know: What is NASCAR doing right? What's the best thing about NASCAR?

A: I think what NASCAR does right is engaging fans at the racetrack. I walk into the garage and fans have access to it. You sign autographs, talk to the fans about races and they have your gear on. There aren't many places where you could go into the player parking lot at a baseball game or football game and talk to them as they walk out. When the fans are on pit road and you can talk to them and they can be part of the action, I think we give our fans more access than most sports.

And the teams are part of that, too. When the cars are sitting here in the garage, people can come by and look at them and check them out. So that's really hands-on for the fans.

Q: And do you have a question for the next person? It's Clint Bowyer.

A: Oh boy. (Laughs) Oh man! Clint, there's no telling what he'll answer. I'd like to know what has changed for him now that he's enjoying married life. I think that'd be a good one for him.